Bryant Wright, pastor of the Atlanta-area Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, defeated Florida pastor Ted Traylor in a runoff for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention.

With 7,667 messengers voting, Wright received 4,225 votes, or 55.11 percent. Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., received 3,371 votes, for 43.9 percent. Nearly 11,000 messengers were registered at the time of the runoff.

In his nomination speech for Wright, David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, said Wright is a pastor whose commitment to the Great Commission is evident.

“While we’ve been talking about the Great Commission, Bryant’s been quietly leading his church to do it,” said Uth, who cited a range of statistics regarding Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, started 28 years ago by Wright in Marietta, Ga.

Last year Johnson Ferry baptized 478 people, started seven churches in Cobb County, Ga., and in four of the past six years has given more than any other church in the SBC to the Lottie Mission Offering for International Missions. The church gave more than $2.7 million to missions last year, Uth reported.

Baptist Press reported in March that Joe Shadden, Johnson Ferry’s finance manager, had told the Florida Baptist Witness the church reduced Cooperative Program and International Mission Board gifts from 5 percent to 3.5 percent each in its 2009 budget as part of an overall budget reduction in response to the economic recession.

Ed Litton, pastor of First Baptist Church of North Mobile in Saraland, Ala., nominated Traylor, saying he “rises from among us to lead us in a pursuit of a spiritual awakening and a Great Commission Resurgence.”

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on www.bpnews.net—however, the original URL is no longer available.]